Everyone saying Allardyce needs to go needs to have a word with themselves, we're sitting 12th in the table, and yeah okay we should be looking over our shoulder but there are alot worst teams in the league than us.As for last night, Arsenal just ruined us in the second half, lets be honest. I really really don't know what Diame, Jarvis and Joe Cole started on the bench. Our 2 main suppliers of the ball are Jarvis and Cole, so where were we going to get goals from if our main approach to the game is to throw in as many crosses as possible.Keep the faithUp the Hammers.Come on you Irons.

A few people have mentioned the problem of misplaced passing denying us possession. The real key is movement. If the players are moving well and aware of each other passing is easy (it's also what makes marking hard). Xavi may be able to thread a pas through the eye of a needle from 50 yards, but most of the time Spain and Barca don't need to do that. It's the movement that makes the passing easy (plus the one touch control).

Arsenal are very good at that. Even now, once they're on their game, few clubs in Europe can match Arsenal's movement. We were on the end of that so we lost heavily. We can't yet do that kind of stuff ourselves, but we don't need to to stay in the Prem. Against poorer clubs we look better. Let's just stay up this year and worry about the more refined elements after that. The funny thing is, it won't take too much to achieve that, though it always depends on the quality of side you're playing

I'm in agreement with Hockley Hammer and Hambrosia Stu, especially regarding a bit of pace in midfield.

Noble may not be the quickest, but his reading of the game as a defensive midfielder has improved tremendously which has helped him and us this year back in the Prem. To put it bluntly, we aren't good enough to get the ball off an opposition forwards and then play our way out of trouble (especially against sides like Arsenal). We missed Diame last night, someone who could pick the ball up and drive us up the pitch and relieve some pressure of the back 4. The quality of our long balls into our target man up top has to be better too if we are going to perform better away from home in the Prem.

Not the worst time to hit a slump though. Hopefully Big Sam can pick us up, get us recharged and fired up, there's plenty of football still left to be played this season.

Same problems. Lack of pace at the back, sitting too high up against a fast attack and getting caught out by through balls and letting them get in behind us. Allardyce picking a team that will sit back and invite pressure rather than taking the game to them.

In the grand scheme of things it's not the end of the world. We wont play an attack as good as that every week, and last night they really clicked in the second half. It's still annoying to see the same problems though, particularly against those slags.

Rio wrote:We live in a whinge culture world and the more miserable people get, the louder the voices & the higher the degree of irrationality.

Trouble is when you fork out and sit amongst the Arsenal fans , see us go one up (despite being bemused by the absence of Cole, Jarvis and Diame) then have to endure those gooners jumping up 4 times in ten minutes all around you then you have every right to moan about a manager that writes off certain games as his stubborn percentage theory allows him to.What about the loyal punters ?

Great atmosphere last night from our support nonetheless, despite some moronic abuse of Carlton Cole [probably fans who haven't been to an away game outside London] - que the punches being thrown in Block 22 [I hope the bloke who got nicked is still in police custody, moron. Don't come another away game.] Always seem to get the Morons at the London derbies, I've been to Sunderland, Newcastle and Wigan away this season and I've seen no idiotic chanting/fighting from our travelling contingent. Every time the Arse scored Bubbles started up straight away. Great atmosphere. Did anyone see James Corden [Celebrity Hammer] up in club level? Apparently he was right above the away end. WHTID

taffhammer wrote:Trouble is when you fork out and sit amongst the Arsenal fans , see us go one up (despite being bemused by the absence of Cole, Jarvis and Diame) then have to endure those gooners jumping up 4 times in ten minutes all around you then you have every right to moan about a manager that writes off certain games as his stubborn percentage theory allows him to.What about the loyal punters ?

As regards to the atmosphere, I haven't missed a trip to the Emirates with us. That was probably the flattest it's been.

Even in the first half. The usual silence from them, but we were hardly rocking the place like normal. The second half naturally knocked the stuffing out of us, but in times of adversity we tend to come alive. We did until Pottsy got injured. All became.a bit irrelevant when you see a kid who's gone through so much suffer like that.

Cordon. Yeah. He was there. Indulged a bit of banter. Helped the atmosphere a tad. Then returned to his box. Not a massive fan of his but fair play to him for at least making an effort

Rio wrote:As regards to the atmosphere, I haven't missed a trip to the Emirates with us. That was probably the flattest it's been.

Even in the first half. The usual silence from them, but we were hardly rocking the place like normal. The second half naturally knocked the stuffing out of us, but in times of adversity we tend to come alive. We did until Pottsy got injured. All became.a bit irrelevant when you see a kid who's gone through so much suffer like that.

Cordon. Yeah. He was there. Indulged a bit of banter. Helped the atmosphere a tad. Then returned to his box. Not a massive fan of his but fair play to him for at least making an effort

Finally mustered up the courage to come on here after getting home from that drubbing yesterday.

We were winning at one point. A very nice goal by Jack too. Carlton held the ball up well.

That's the positives. From the moment the lineup was announced I was expecting a beating. No Diame, no Cole, no Jarvis, no ambition. It staggers me we can be so negative and Sam can be so disrespectful to the thousands of fans who paid good money to support their team.

We insisted on playing a ludicrously high line despite our painstakingly slow defence and, predictably, got ripped to shreds by Walcott, Podolski et al. It's not rocket science, and we actually had a good line in the first half and limited them to mostly shots from outside the box. Whatever Sam said at half time must have really demoralised the team because that 10 minutes was depressing to say the least.

Vaz Te was dogshit and must be dropped. Thanks for the memories Vaz, but back to the championship you must go.

I trust Big Sam to learn his lessons after this humiliation. But he must do so fast as Fulham away next week is now important and a must win (or at least not lose).

It's taken me until now (Thursday evening) for my shell shock to subside...

As soon as I got to my seat at the Emirates, the teams ran out. I started scanning our players and just felt the blood drain from my head. No Joe Cole, no Jarivs, no Diame, no Diarra. I worried that we would have a very difficult time winning and keeping the ball. Most of our lads gave their best, (Vaz Te excepted)

Clearly, as has been surmised before, Sam has approached this match like a business might approach a bad debt - i.e. he made the decision to do the prudent thing and write it off the balance sheet. He has looked at Fulham, Swansea and Villa as matches that we are capable of competing in (good debts) and decided to preserve his precious resources for those matches. From a shrewd, business-like viewpoint, I can see where he is coming from. Having ****ed out the best part of £80 for two tickets, not to mention train tickets and refreshments, it's a little bit harder to swallow as a fan. I keep comforting myself with the notion that if we put out a strong team, show a committed performance and grab at least a point at Craven Cottage next week, Sam will be vindicated and the pain may subside. Here's hoping that this time next week the world will look a lot rosier...

My only highlight being noticing the muppets filling in of their trophy spaces with complete tacky Manc rip offs. Made the place look tacky. Loved the 'You Can't Buy Class' one. They also can't BT atmosphere, a decent keeper or a trophy for 8 years. Among other things

WHU Independent wrote:I was there in the gooner end tonight ( got free tickets) and I am so wound up ( and not because of the game or the result) with what happened inside the ground with some of their so called fans, that I seriously can't write about it now. Even though I got home safe and have had a few drinks at home, I can't begin to post what happened. I am so angry and was a gnats hair away from throwing a suicidal wobbly in their end you would not believe.

Lucky for me - and some gooner and non gooner mates - not all gooner supporters are scum.

I am having a few more drinks to calm down. I will probably post under a separate post tomorrow.